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Flipzide hires Lillard, Ramirez for 'Summer' pic

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Matthew Lillard and Efren Ramirez are set to star in Flipzide Studios' "American Summer," a comedy about a pool boy and gardener who take over a Beverly Hills mansion and become neighborhood pimps.

Flipzide CEO Warren Zide is producing and Seven Arts International is financing the film from director J.B. Rogers ("American Pie 2"). Seven Arts also is financing Adam Gierasch's horror flick "Autopsy"; both projects, with a combined budget of about $16 million, begin principal photography April 9 in New Orleans.

Lillard plays a pool boy who has managed to convince his parents he's attending Harvard. After his apartment complex undergoes termite fumigation, he moves with a pretty escort/neighbor and a young friend into an empty mansion where he works and soon stumbles into the world's oldest profession. Ramirez ("Napoleon Dynamite") plays the next-door gardener called in as "the muscle" of the operation.

"Summer" (formerly titled "Pool Boy") and "Autopsy" are the first of a three-feature, $15 million-$20 million equity financing pact between Flipzide and Seven Arts. "Autopsy," produced with Jessica Horowitz, features Jessica Lowndes, Ashley Schneider, Joe Reegan, Jenette Goldstein and Robert Lasardo.

Lillard is repped by CAA, Mosaic and Ziffren Brittenham. Ramirez is repped by Kazarian Spencer and Associates and Ken Jacobson.